Mitsukoshi, Piccadilly

The days are finally getting warmer, so when it comes to lunchtime I like eating something light and fresh. Today I decided to go for Japanese. Mitsukoshi is a Japanese department store, which has many stores internationally, however only one in the UK; London. Within the basement of the London store, is the Mitsukoshi restaurant.

At lunchtime they offer a lunch course of the month menu, weekly set lunch, and their usual al a carte menu. I went for the Lunch course of the month menu. Appetizer was sashimi of the day. This came with 3 different kinds of fish; salmon, tuna and sea bass (sorry my photo didn't come out). As expected though, the sashimi was beautifully presented, fresh and delicious.

The main course was; soft shell crab and vegetable tempura with rice, miso soup and pickles (luckily this picture turned out ok). The tempura was light and crisp. Even though this may appear to be a lot of food, altogether it was light and fresh tasting, I was a little full and finished everything except the rice. 

The dessert was afrogato, unfortunately I love ice cream and scoffed it down before realizing that I didn't take a picture. The espresso used was strong and rich, the ice cream was vanilla however had a few ice crystals in it. 

At £23, it is expensive for lunch, however the food is fresh and tasty. The service may be a little slow if you're eating in your lunch hour from work. They pay attention here to the overall dining experience. 

They have also opened a ramen bar next to the restaurant, which looked great, so I'll have to go back again to give it a go

Auntie Anne's Chocolate Pretzel

Ok, I know the pictures don't look like much but trust me on this one. Auntie Anne's have been making pretzels for many years and have been brought over from America. They don't have many locations in London, this one was bought from their new shop in Ealing Broadway.

This is a chocolate pretzel, its basically a Twix wrapped around pretzel, pretty much what they do with hot dogs. When you bite into it when fresh, the Twix is melted and oozes chocolate and caramel. The biscuit gives it a crunch.

This pretzel is amazing!! Words just cannot describe how much I love this pretzel. There are other pretzel shops out there, however their  version of a chocolate pretzel is a regular pretzels with some sort of chocolate sauce drizzled on top. This Twix pretzel, takes the chocolate pretzel to a new level. Whoever created this pretzel deserves a medal. Everyone has to try this pretzel. I can't eat a Twix now without missing it warm and wrapped in a pretzel.

This pretzel is amazing!! 

Caffe Concerto, Tottenham Court Road

I Love Cakes!! 

I Love walking down a road and stumbling across a cake shop's window and drooling outside looking at all of the cakes on offer, there's something so magically about it.

 I'm a fan of Patisserie Valerie, I love their cakes. Caffe Concerto is fairly new in comparison to Patisserie Valerie in the cake shop/caffe outlet chain on the high street. I have walked past many Caffe Concerto shops and stared at their display of cakes. It has always been so enticing, however I had never entered one until now... 

So for my brother's birthday, rather than ordering from Patisserie Valerie, I thought I would give Caffe Concerto a go. From their selection on their website, I ordered the Chocolate Cigarette Selva. It was a chocolate sponge layered with zabaglione cream, fresh cream and fruits. It was decorated with fresh fruits on the top, and I additionally requested a scroll message for the top. 

The cake looked great when the box was opened, however when I opened it at home, it looked as though the cake was slightly slanted, this may have happened on transportation of the cake. The cake was extremely hard to cut, and individual slices were hard to make. It was messy and didn't hold its shape, this may have explained why the cake had been slanted, perhaps when making the cake the layers of the cake were not even.The sponge was moist and light, however the cream was slightly marshmellowy in taste and texture, I would have rather had just fresh cream. It has some of the biggest strawberries I've ever seen on it. The altogether taste was ok, however nothing special or exciting. The cake could have come from any local cake shop and the difference may not have been noticed.  

For any special occasion or cakes, I would have much preferred Patisserie Valerie's cakes, but you never know until you try others so you get to compare.

Next time I'm sticking with Patisserie Valerie.

The Only Running Footman, London

The Only Running Footman is a pub just off Berkeley Square. Aimed as a gastropub, I visited one lunchtime.

The pub was busy with lots of diners. The pub had a traditional feel, with a classic chic in the dining area, with the crisp white linens for the tables.

I ordered the special, which was slow roasted belly pork with pomme anna, buttered kale, apple sauce and gravy.

The food was very slow, the waiter had to be reminded where our food was, we waited what felt like an eternity for our food, at one point I was contemplating asking whether they did any snacks for me to nibble on whilst I waited. The table next to us ordered the sharing platter, which looked big and rustic, however it didn't look like too hard to cook as the "cox apple" as mentioned on the menu was literally a cox's apple quartered and placed on the platter.

Once our food arrived, the belly pork was soft and needed the meaty gravy to bring it altogether. The crackling on top however needed to be more crunchy as you would expect with crackling, however it was chewy. As expected with belly pork the pork had lots of fat running through it, so the apple sauce really helped to cut through the fat. The kale as you would expect. The pomme anna, just missing more buttery taste.

All in all, it was ok, however did not weigh up to the long waiting time